McKINLEYVILLE >> With the wind against them, the Del Norte girls and the McKinleyville boys track & field teams powered through 16 events to become Humboldt Del-Norte league champions on Friday afternoon.

In both the boys' team and individual races, it was neck and neck between Mack and Fortuna. After 11 events the Panthers were only up by six points, 89-83. However, Mack slowly started to separate itself from Fortuna and won with a team total of 133 points. The Huskies finished in second with a total score of 104 and Del Norte came in third with a 98.

McKinleyville's Bennie Trice and Fortuna's Patrick Daly have been battling each other all season in the 100 and 200 meter dash races. Last week, at the HD-N prelims, Daly got the best of Trice in the 200 meter. But Trice knew what to expect coming into the championship.

"My mind set of today was just 'go' and get these points for my team," Trice said. "I knew Patrick Daly was going to come for me. I thought during the race he was going to take me over but I kept him at bay."

After crossing the finish line at 11.07 seconds, Trice was definitely hyped up.

"It's my home meet and I'm 100-meter champion of league right now," added the senior. "My teammate last year was 100-meter champion, so I wanted to carry out the tradition. It feels good. It feels like I didn't let anyone down."

Trice kept Daly at bay, not just once, but twice.

In the 200 meter race, the end was so close, the result literally went to a photo finish. The meet director had to make the decision on who won the race.

By just a tenth of a second, Trice out-leaned Daly with a time of 23.18.

On the girls' side, it wasn't as close of a race.

Del Norte was leading second place Arcata by 44 points after 12 events. At the end, the Warriors won with a final score of 176. The Tigers finished with 129 points and the Eureka Loggers ended with 88.

A trio of Warriors — Maddie Critz, Kayla Costello and Kaitlyn Clemann — took first through third place in the girls 100 meter hurdles. Critz, Rachel Rowe and Maddison Smedley and Costello, Clemann and Sandra De Leon Mendoza took second through fourth place in the girls 200 meter race and 300 meter hurdles, respectively.

Del Norte only took two first-place finish — Critz in the 100 meter hurdles — in the individual races, but scored in bunches as a team.

"The girls wanted the championship really badly," Critz said, who said this year's Del Norte team had the most participants in years. "Our coach was really excited to get us a championship today.

"(My individual goal) was just to get points for the team and get those points nobody is really expecting. I feel like the whole teams needs to win."

Although the Warriors won as a team, there were a few individual standouts.

Ellie Earle-Rouse from Arcata, came into the HD-N championships with a personal best triple jump of 35-feet, 1-inch.

On Friday, she broke that record by nine inches, jumping a 35.10.

She also took first place in the pole vault and high jump.

"I've been stuck at 35.1 (in the triple jump) for a long time, so getting past that was really great," Earle-Rouse said. "It feels great, to know that I still have two years ahead of me and already taking a strong first in three events.

"I'm a really competitive person. If people are pushing me, then that's my inspiration. I feel like I can push myself, especially when it comes to stuff like this."